1. FC Heidenheim in the crisis of results – which now gives hope

1. FC Heidenheim is now waiting eight games in the Bundesliga for a win. A dry spell like the last time in the 2016/2017 season for the club, which was promoted to Germany's elite class for the first time a year and a half ago. At that time, FCH was still playing in the 2nd league. The opponents in the results crisis were Fortuna Düsseldorf, Eintracht Braunschweig or SV Sandhausen – and not, like now, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen or RB Leipzig.

Nevertheless, the current situation, even if the opponents were different and better than back then, won't really feel any different for the Heidenheimers. Because FCH is in the middle of a relegation battle. “It's a difficult phase for us. Nobody thought that she couldn’t come with us,” said coach Frank Schmidt recently. “Now come the games in which we have to score,” demanded captain Patrick Mainka after the recent defeat at FC Bayern and before the home game this Sunday against VfB Stuttgart (3:30 p.m., DAZN) and a week later at VfL Bochum. Schmidt emphasized: “I want to see from my team that everyone has understood what is at stake now.”

Heidenheim slipped to 16th place

In the Bundesliga, Heidenheim slipped to relegation place 16 due to poor results – FCH only got one point from the last eight games. The club from the city of 50,000 residents only played there once last season, on the second matchday. After that it went steadily uphill – up to 8th place. Heidenheim, which was still playing in the Regionalliga Süd 15 years ago and has made an impressive rise since then, reached international business for the first time in the club's history. The Ostalb team qualified for the Conference League and managed to move into the group stage of the competition.

That also means: more English weeks. Heidenheim cannot concentrate entirely on the league, as was the case last season. Every second Thursday, the team around youngster Paul Wanner, who is on loan from FC Bayern, is challenged in the European Cup. FCH is not the first club to have problems in the league with the double burden on their backs. In addition, the promotion euphoria from the first year of the Bundesliga has somewhat dissipated. With Tim Kleindienst and Jan-Niklas Beste, two top performers left the club before the season.

Strong opponents are now followed by more feasible tasks

Captain Mainka now wants to tackle the last two games before the winter break with “full-throttle football” and “a lot of courage,” he emphasized, in order to achieve another turnaround. “We have committed ourselves to what is coming now.” The Heidenheimers showed that there is a tight-knit team on the pitch not only in their victories in the Conference League, but also in their recent defeats in the Bundesliga. At FC Bayern, for example, FCH lost 4-2 and even sniffed the equalizer shortly before the end when the score was 2-3. No other team has scored twice against the league leaders this season. In general, the record champions had only conceded one goal at home until the Heidenheim game.

In Leverkusen, Heidenheim even led 2-0 for a while, but in the end had to admit defeat 2-5. The Baden-Württemberg team also kept the away game in Dortmund, which they lost 2-4, open for a long time.

How can we get out of the Bundesliga results crisis? Schmidt said: “It's best to score two goals again and defend better at the back.” Heidenheim conceded 17 goals in the last five games alone – far too many to be countable in the Bundesliga. But it is also true that the last opponents were Bayern, Eintracht Frankfurt, Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg – all of them were in the top 6 before the 14th matchday. The next opponents are Stuttgart (before the 8th matchday), Bochum (18th. ), Union Berlin (12th) and Werder Bremen (10th).

Schmidt knows: “There will be games in which we have to score points. In the end we have to stay above the line and always keep our head up and our chest out. Then we’ll work our way out.”